Bortnikov: 80 terror acts prevented in Northern Caucasus

Head of the FSB Alexander Bortnikov has stated today at the sitting of the National Antiterrorist Committee (NAC) that in 2009 almost 800 militants and their helpers were detained in Northern Caucasus, but the threat of terror acts in the Russian Federation survives.

According to Mr Bortnikov, the recent events confirm it. The facts of blowing up the "Neva-Express" train and a train in Dagestan, although resulted in criminal cases initiated under the same articles, may not have direct interconnection, as stated earlier by Russian Premier Vladimir Putin. The FSB boss also believes that they will manage to find the criminals and make them answerable quite soon.

According to Mr Bortnikov, this year, in the territory of Northern Caucasus, 80 terror acts were prevented, 42 counterterrorist operations and a great number of other special operations were conducted. They all resulted in detention of 782 members of the armed underground and their helpers; 1600 units of small arms, 490 self-made bombs and more than 5.5 tons of explosives were confiscated, as the "Echo Moskvy" Radio reports.

The "Interfax" reports that when speaking about railway terror acts, Alexander Bortnikov has also noted that measures on protecting the railways are implemented not efficiently enough.